


Welcome To The Circle

by eggsinsunnyside



Series: Circle of Imagination [1]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Family, Magic, Witch!Henry, Witchcraft, Witches, because gosh knows i haven't been doing enough rituals in the others, the actual witch fic of this series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-07 10:44:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14669484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eggsinsunnyside/pseuds/eggsinsunnyside
Summary: How the Circle of Imagination came to be, and what a disaster of a coven they are





	1. Joey and Henry ( and Bendy and Boris )

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Away from society's prying eyes, Joey and Henry ( and by extension, Bendy and Boris ) start a ~~cult~~ coven

“So are we serious about this?”

“Henry if I wasn’t serious about this, I would’ve never told you about it.”

Henry deadpanned at Joey who was lying on his bed, “You tell me this every time you have a new dream in your head and want to follow it, only for the next day it’s another dream.”

“What can I say?” Joey flashed his charismatic smile at Henry, “Dreams come true if you have the belief.”

In previous years, it probably worked on Henry who stood as Joey’s best friend for many years. After frequent exposure to it though ( and the frustrations of working with Joey Drew ), Henry had become immune to the charm of the smile.

“And actually work for it?” Henry snorted, briefly looking up from his sketchbook where Bendy and Boris sat in the current page. “Yeah, tell me that again when you can actually draw a proper ritual circle without my help. Wards and all.” He added challengingly, looking at Joey at the corner of his eye- Yep there it was.

The Joey Drew look of ‘Challenge accepted you dreamless cur’.

“I’ll make you eat those words.” Joey grinned widely.

“Still, you know the town kind of hates us?” Henry asked with a frown.

“Henry, they didn’t like us as kids and they didn’t like us as grownups,” Joey added with a snort, “They’re never going to like us, except maybe not you, because curse you and your endless patience-“

“That I got from dealing with you-“

“But those stuck up witches with a stick up their arse will never approve anything we do.” Joey finished, “Their excuse is always ‘only covens can have access to this’ and all that nonsense, but you know just as well as I do that none of the covens will take us in.”

“So this is what it’s all about?” Henry asked, not looking up from his sketchbook as he sketched another couch for Bendy to sit on, Boris content with watching his friend.

The little devil experimentally jumped onto the couch and sat on it for a while before shaking his head at Henry.

‘Hard as a rock,’ Bendy signed to his Creator, ‘Make it softer please.’

‘Adding shadows might work.’ Boris added with his own series of gestures.

“I know you want to learn more about magic, Henry. All the possibilities that you could do with your brand of magic.” Joey said, sitting up properly on his bed, “It’s all over your face.”

Henry paused in his drawing.

“Am I that obvious?”

“It’s really hard to ignore the looks you give whenever you look at the Old Songs or the Holy Risen.” Joey pointed out, “And here I thought it was because you were into Sammy from there.”

“Oh shut up, Joey.” Henry pouted, flinging a pencil in Joey’s direction.

It missed by an inch and bounced off the wall behind him.

“Right, you’re married with your drawings.” Joey continued to tease.

This time the next pencil hit Joey’s forehead.

“Ass.” Henry huffed and returned to improving the couch for his toons.

“I probably deserved that.” Joey admitted without a hint of remorse, “So what do you say, old friend? Let’s start a coven together. One that spits in the face of tradition and all those judgmental old witches.”

Henry didn’t reply until he managed to fix the couch’s detail to appear ‘soft’ enough for Bendy to use. While Bendy tested the improved version of the couch, Henry turned to face Joey with crossed arms and an unreadable look.

“Joey, I’ve been your friend for the past twelve years.” He started slowly.

“I’ve been through hell and back while being by your side, and even when the High Witch was onto our ass, I didn’t stray from your side. I’ve sat through so many of your dreams and schemes that it really is a miracle that I haven’t gotten tired of them yet. But this plan of yours? It sounds so ridiculous that I can’t believe you even thought of it in the first place.”

To his credit, Joey didn’t show any immediate reaction. “So… Is that a no?”

“Are you kidding me? Of course, we’re doing it!” Henry barked out a laugh, a wide smile stretching across his face. “You know I’m always up for your antics, Joey.”

“Except for that time when I wanted to throw salt at Father Lawrence’s face.”

“We were ten, Joey. He’d wring our necks out if we did that.” Henry explained, “But that’s not the point. You know I support you for whatever plan you got cooked up in that brain of yours, unless sai plan involves us dying.”

“Ha ha, yeah.” Joey laughed, sheepishly smiling at his best friend, “So it’s official then? We’re going to start a coven together?”

“Sure we are.” Henry briefly glanced at Bendy, “Bendy’s going to be a part of it, right? Boris too?”

“Of course both of them are.” Joey answered with a roll of his eyes and clicked his fingers, “In fact… They can be our mascots!”

“Mascots, huh?” Henry repeated quietly, turning to face the little devil. “So what about it guys? Wanna be the faces of our new coven?”

While Boris shrugged noncommittedly, Bendy was positively buzzing on the sheet.

If Bendy vigorously nodding his head wasn’t enough of an answer, then the silent screaming and wild dancing would be enough to tell Henry of his creation’s answer.

“Alright, alright, settle down there, bud.” Henry laughed when Bendy began to bounce off the walls of the paper in his excitement. “Else you might just fly out of the paper without any magic involved.”

That just made Bendy move even faster and Henry had to really calm the dancing demon down before he actually broke through the confines of his paper and get Boris caught up in the crossfire.

It wasn’t that Henry didn’t want Bendy to be outside of his paper, he’d actually love to see his drawings in the real world, but as far as he knew, there was no spells or rituals that could bring drawings to the real world.

“So how are we meant to register our coven anyway?” Henry asked once Boris had calmed Bendy down enough.

“It’s pretty simple. We just need to sign some documents, put our magic signature on it and just like that, coven registered.” Joey replied with a wave of his hand.

“And what documents are those?” Henry pressed.

“The ones you have to get from the High Witch so he’ll know you exist.”

Henry blanked at Joey, “And you have a way to convince the High Witch – the guy who hates us most, I might add – that he should let our coven be made? Without any strings attached that we’ll be watched like a hawk and likely won’t touch any of the official spellbooks?”

Joey stared at Henry as if he had grown another head before he cursed under his breath and fell back on his bed.

“Damn, I did not see that coming.” He muttered under his breath before waving his hand at Henry, “Then we’ll just have to stay off the records.”

“So what, we’re going to be an unofficial coven?” Henry said, “That’s not very different to what we’ve been doing lately.”

“Hey it’s just officialized between us.” Joey corrected with a grin. “Since we all mutually agree to make this coven, however unofficial it might be, then I say we can do a Coven Initiation Ritual. And before you ask, yes I have a spell book with the ritual-”

He slid his hand under his bed’s pillow and pulled out-

“Is that the Illusion of Life?” Henry stared at the black book with incredulous eyes, “How the hell did you even keep it after all this time?”

“Magic.” Joey beamed, “And a box.”

“You know what, I’m not even going to ask.” Henry shook his head though he was smiling, “So what does the book say to do?”

“Hold on a moment,” Joey flicked through several pages in the book, “Let’s see... Oh hey, no blood involved this time-“

“Were you really going to do blood magic again after what happened the last time we did it?”

“It’s actually pretty simple.” Joey turned the book around for Henry to see the circle inscribed on the page, “Ritual circle aside, the only materials needed is some bone marrow ashes, basil and an artifact to embody the Coven’s ideology.”

“Ideology?”

“I think it’s what the Coven is all about.” Joey explained, “Like how the Old Songs are about the use of songs, so their artifact is probably some sheet music or what not. I don’t know what the Holy Fallens are about though, those guys are weird.”

“Huh,” Henry rubbed his chin in thought, “Well I wouldn’t say all of the Holy Fallens are strange. There’s Susie Campbell who’s quite a gal.”

“Eyeing someone al- Wait, wait drop the pencil Henry!” Henry lowered the pencil in his hand, but the threat was still there, “A-Anyway, so artifact. We need something that’ll represent what this coven’s about.”

“That’s kind of tough, Joey.” Henry frowned. “What made you think we should’ve started a coven?”

“Well spite is one of them,” Joey admitted with a chuckle, “I wanted to show those old geezers that we wouldn’t be pushed around by their stupid rules and we know magic just like they do.”

“Any kind of objects you can associate with that?”

Joey hummed in thought before shaking his head. “What about you Henry?”

“Me?” Henry crossed his fingers together, “.. I suppose it’s for the curiosity. Since findin’ out I was a witch and all, magic did interest me a bit but I never really caught that interest until after the Witches’ Gathering.”

“I guess all I want to do is explore what magic is able to do.”

“So essentially we have spite and curiosity to use as our ideology.” Joey chuckled, running fingers through his hair, “I’ve absolutely no idea what we’re going to use. We’re on a blank page here.”

Henry sat glumly in his chair, wracking his head for ideas that wouldn’t come. He eyed at Bendy who was satisfied with the couch he drew earlier and smiled when he saw how comfortable Bendy was in the drawing. Even Boris had joined the little demon by taking up the other side of the couch.

Maybe he should start filling out the other spaces in the page so the toons weren’t stuck in constant blankness.

…

Blank.

Henry had an idea.

“A blank book.”

“A what?” Joey said with a puzzled look.

“Think about it. We want to explore the possibilities of magic that haven’t been discovered yet, and what other way of exploring than with a book that has nothing yet?” Henry explained, "And it'll fill out over time while we find more about magic-"

“Something that people don’t bother to look at or try to fill, and is all for us to discover.” Joey murmured with realization flashing in his eyes, and the corner of his lips tugging into a smirk, “Henry, you genius. What will I ever do without you?”

“Nothing but dream, I’d imagine.” Henry teased, “I’ll go get the chalk.”

“I’ll get the ingredients.” Joey bounced off his bed, “Remember-“

“Follow exactly to the book, I know Joey.” Henry rolled his eyes with a fond smile, “Now go on. This coven isn’t going to start by itself.”

Henry had gotten better with drawing ritual circles over the years.

Joey’s book, ‘The Illusion of Life’, for all the trouble it brought to Henry and Joey, it was a well of magical knowledge for the two who were very inexperienced with spells.

Granted, there weren’t a lot of spells that they could really test out ( one of the spells was even about how to drain the blood from someone’s body - they weren’t going to murder someone for the sake of knowing! )  but it was honestly better than not knowing what magic was capable of.

Henry had no idea where Joey had gotten the book, but he won’t be lying if he said that he was glad that Joey had it.

Joey returned with all of the ingredients for the ritual by the time Henry was finishing the symbols in the circle.

“Lookin’ neat there.” Joey commented.

“You say that for every circle I draw.” Henry retorted playfully, wiping off some of the chalk dust from his fingers. “I don’t get why some of the other spell books insist on using fine dust powder that needs to be sprinkled over to the exact shape of the circle. Chalk works just as fine.”

“Because Henry, nobody’s a genius like you who figured out that chalk is a perfectly good substitute.” Joey said, carefully positioning each of the ingredients in their designated spot on the circle. “Spell’s bout ready to go. Bendy, this looking good to you?”

Bendy barely glanced at Joey from his personal Henry-drawn couch, instead letting out a silent yawn and snuggled into the couch more.

“I’m going to draw them actual beds after this, I swear. Him and Boris.” Henry mumbled to himself.

“I can’t believe you spoil your magical constructs rotten, but you don’t spoil me, your own best friend.” Joey complained as he set the blank book in the center of the circle.

“One, because Bendy and Boris are my creations and two, we both know that I spoil you enough.” Henry chuckled at Joey’s reaction, “Spoil you anymore and then we’ll be burning at the stake because I wasn’t able to stop you from doing something stupid.”

“But you always joined me whenever I did something stupid.” Joey muttered.

“Anyway,” Henry cleared his throat, “Since we’re starting a coven, shouldn’t we come up with a name for it? Like… Sillyvision?”

“Henry, you are absolutely terrible with names, and that sounds like such a joke.” Joey deadpanned, “We should go for something more spectacular. Something original. Something like Imagination Gathering, or what not.”

“But it’s not really a gathering if it’s just us two, right?” Henry pointed out. “It’s more like a friendship circle.”

“Then we’ll use that!” Joey clicked his fingers, “The Circle of Imagination. Not a bad name, right?”

Henry glanced at his toons who had been listening in their conversation, “Any objections?”

Both Bendy and Boris shook their head.

“The Circle of Imagination, it is then.”  Henry chuckled, “Here’s to the birth of an unofficial coven run by two witches who’ve no idea what they’re doing.”

 Joey just laughed as the ritual took place.

Neither of them had really expected that their little Coven to expand into one big family in the future.


	2. Sammy Lawrence ( And his Old Song )

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sammy's been hearing things and frankly, he's sick of it.

Lately, Sammy’s been hearing things.

He swears he’s not going crazy, but he might eat his own words soon if this kept up.

It started as a low humming that Sammy brushed off as nothing more than background noise. Considering the kind of coven the Old Song was, there was someone bound to be humming some nonsensical tune just for the sake of it.

Then for whatever reason he couldn’t conceive, the humming became a discordant. Notes that screamed of _wrongwrongfixthisplease_ would scream into his mind at any moment, and Sammy would never fail to be startled by it. It made him sick with how wrong it was.

His discomfort got to the point that Abigail had even confronted him about it.

“ _Sammy, I know that you’re a cautious type of guy, but this is getting ridiculous. Just last night, some of the young studies spotted you carving wards into the walls.” She said to him while he was reviewing over the notes of the Old Song._

_“So what about it?” Sammy retorted, unable to keep the rudeness from creeping into his tone._

_“Sammy, the wards were all purification types.” Abigail pointed out, “Did someone hex you or something?”_

_“Honestly?” He glanced up at Abigail, “I don’t know. If it was a hex, then its effects should be constant. I’ve tried recording the timing of whenever it happens but it’s too random. No set schedule or whatsoever.”_

“ _You never told me what’s been happening to you either,” The older witch accused, “What’s been happening, Sammy?”_

_“Noise, Abby. These noises are making me sick and I can’t fix it no matter how often I sing the Old Song because it does absolutely nothing.”_

It’s been almost a week now since Sammy started hearing them and he has no doubt that unless he found the source of the noise, then he would never get peace in his mind.

Not while the humming and the screeching continued to exist.

Sammy waited in his room, sitting atop of his bed with sheets of music notes surrounding him. To the others, it was just another night of him working on refining the Old Song’s notes in whatever ways he could without ‘ruining’ the Old Song.

Sammy snorted at the very idea that he of all people, would try to ruin the Old Song’s music. He practically breathed its magic in every waking moment.

Every morning, he’d wake up and hum the tune to the song.

Let the magic weave into the music and bit by bit influence the world around them.

And when Sammy wasn’t satisfied with its effect and neither was the magic, he’d change a few notes that others would dare not to.

Free of its restraints and let it loose –

That was the Old Song Sammy dearly loved.

It was a shame that nobody else loved it like Sammy did.

Midnight passed, and Sammy could feel his mind begin to waver, give into the desire to sleep. For a moment, he entertained the thought because hey, maybe this time he could catch up on some sleep-

Sammy almost yelled when his ears were filled with a high-pitched screech like nails being scratched against the chalkboard, scattering his papers all over the floor and making him scramble out of his home.

That’s it. He’s had enough of this stupid hex.

If there was a perk of being part of the Old Song coven, it was that the arts practiced by the coven members required witches to be able to differentiate each other’s magic signature to perform group songs. And Sammy was very good at identifying magic traces.

It wasn’t hard to latch onto the unique magic signature and trace it for Sammy.

It was unlike most of the magic signatures that Sammy knew.

Whereas most people had some sort of harmony in their magic signature, this one was chaos so to put it simply. There was no pleasant noise to accompany its notes or at least dull its impact.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Sammy found himself already hating the sucker who had this magic signature.

Though whenever the noise would die down, the magic signature would disappear too and leave Sammy stranded with no lead because he can’t exactly track down a magic signature that doesn’t exist anymore.

Apparently tonight was one of those nights when the noises would be frequent, so Sammy had that to thank for at least.

After a few hours of standing around and following the noise whenever it popped up, Sammy finally arrived at his destination: a house that was moderate in size and positively buzzing with noise.

He may’ve knocked on the door a little bit harder than intended, but honestly can someone blame him for being a bit irritated for losing nights of sleep and cursing him with atrocious noises?

If anything, he should be commended for restraining himself when the door swung open to reveal a disgruntled young man. “What do you want?”

The noise had died down, but the signature matched.

Sammy punched the man in the face.

“Ow!” The witch yelped in pain, lightly pressing his hand against his cheek, “What the hell was that for?!”

“That’s for hexing me, you ass.” Sammy hissed, shoving a finger in front of the other’s face. “Since a week ago, I’ve been hearing terrible noises constantly and it all comes from you.”

“What does noises have to do with hexes?” The witch grumbled, rubbing his cheek and standing up from the ground, “Besides, I don’t know any non-lethal hex yet.”

“Non-lethal?” Sammy frowned, “What are you-“

“Joey, who’s at the door?”

Sammy glanced over the witch Joey to see a short man approaching the two from within the house. A small hum sang softly in the air, one that Sammy distinctly recognized.

“Some git who think I hexed him for whatever reason and punched me in the face for it.” Joey grumbled, shooting Sammy a dirty look.

“He what?” The shorter witch stared at Sammy incredulously, a flash of fierce protectiveness in his grey eyes.

“Listen, I know it was him. It’s not that hard to trace a witch’s signature from the hex.” Sammy rolled his eyes before the short witch could accuse him of acting on mere violence, “If you don’t know, Old Song is very good at identifying a witch’s magic signature.”

Joey swore under his breath, “You’re an Old Song witch?”

“Yeah so I’d appreciate it if you can release the damn hex.” Sammy glowered, crossing his arms.

The two witches glared at each other for a while, silently challenging for one to throw the first punch.

They probably would’ve succeeded too if the shorter witch hadn’t decided to wedge himself between the two.

“Alright, no need to throw silent curses at each other.” He said calmly and nudged Joey inside the house. “How about, we go inside and talk this over? Maybe we can figure out where this hex is coming from.”

Sammy had half the mind to object and it looked like Joey was too, but one sharp glare from the shorter witch had effectively silenced them.

Once everyone had gathered in the lounge, the short witch was the first to speak.

“Alright then, let’s get down to it. I’m Henry and the guy you punched in the face is my friend, Joey.” Henry started, gesturing to himself and Joey.

“Sammy Lawrence of the Old Songs.”

“So Sammy, what kind of hex have you been experiencing?” Henry asked, grabbing a sketchbook from the low table, “Fatigue, sickness, dizziness – any of those typical hex feelings?”

“Are you trying to be a doctor or something, Henry?” Joey snickered. “Because you’re really fitting the bill right now.”

“I’m charging it on you then.” Henry playfully retorted, a flicker of fondness lingering in his eyes before it vanished mostly once his attention was on Sammy again.

“I keep hearing things,” Sammy said with a disgruntled tone, “And I don’t mean those whispers-from-the-dark things but someone-keeps-blaring-shit-into-my-ear kind. It’s like one moment, there’s a sweet humming that is only mildly distracting at first, then it’ll be all wrong.”

“By wrong, you mean as in the humming doesn’t sound right?” Henry frowned.

“No. As in, the noise itself sounds very wrong. So wrong that it shouldn’t exist in the first place but does anyway, because it might be some abomination from the magic.” Sammy elaborated, “I’ve heard a lot of songs before. There’s always a bit of harmony in them but this noise had none of those.”

“You keep on going on and on about noise but what does it have to do with me hexing you?” Joey demanded, crossing his arms.

“Old Song witches rely on the ‘music’ that magic makes.” Sammy explained, “If you screw over an Old Song witch’s hearing, you’ve basically messed with their ability to properly use the Old Song. It’s common knowledge.”

 Henry chewed on his lips in thought, “Sorry. Joey and I aren’t actually familiar with the covens.”

“What, really?” Sammy frowned at Henry, “Witches are put in covens when they’re of age. You are very well past the age of being inducted in a coven.”

“Well… See, Joey and I did something really stupid. The High Witch doesn’t like us that much because of that, so we weren’t allowed to join any of the covens.” Henry muttered, briefly glancing at Joey who flinches slightly. “We’re not stray witches anymore though, if you’re wondering.”

“What coven do you guys belong to then?”

“The Circle of Imagination, that’s what.” Joey interjected with a grin, “Wanna join?”

“You do know that I already belong to a coven, right?” Sammy asked with narrowed eyes. “Besides, I’ve never heard of the Circle of Imagination.”

“It’s recently made, in fact we only did the ritual a week ago.” Joey beamed brightly.

“Recently?” Sammy repeated and blanked, “You made a coven without the High Witch’s approval? No documents or any of that?”

Joey shrugged, “I mean, the guy hates us. He’d never let us make a coven.”

“If he did, I’ve no doubt he’d do something to keep us heavy watch, so we couldn’t learn any magic, or worse do any magic.” Henry added bitterly.

“While I’m… flattered for the offer, I will have to decline.” Sammy shook his head. “I can’t abandon the Old Songs.”

“I see. That’s a shame.” Joey mumbled dejectedly.

Henry frowned at his friend’s reaction and flashed a quick smile to Sammy, “Why don’t you show Sammy the circle we were working on for this week. It might be what’s causing the hex.”

“Please do.” Sammy nodded, “I’d like to live my life without in fear of sudden noises disturbing me.”

Joey gestured for Sammy to follow him into a room – an open wide room with plenty of spaces for rituals to be done – where three circles were drawn on the ground, lines connecting the circles with each other to form a triangle.

Oddly enough, they were done in chalk rather than the conventional powder being dusted on the ground.  

“We were trying to soundproof the house.” Joey explained, “Because sometimes, things get a bit loud in here and we wouldn’t want to disturb the neighbors.”

Sammy nodded along to Joey’s rambling while he approached the ritual, careful not to damage the white lines.

There were a variety of runes, most which were familiar to the witch, but a few symbols did not match any of his memories.

In fact, he’s pretty sure these runes didn’t exist in any of the spell books in the Archives.

“What are these runes for?” Sammy inquired curiously.

“The symbols?”

“They’re correctly called runes, Joey.” Sammy corrected the shorter witch, squatting down to take a better look, “Instructions for the magic. You have sound-“He pointed to the wavy symbol.

“-Land-“ A flat line with a dot on top and two lines protruding from the bottom line.

“-Silence-“ Two lines crossing each other over the waves.

“So shouldn’t it have worked right?” Joey frowned.

Sammy hummed to himself before pointing to another rune, “That one. That rune’s for influencing the intensity of magic which is good for suppressing its signal, but I don’t see any limitation runes.”

“This sym- rune was supposed to redirect sound out of people’s minds.” Joey directed their attention to one of the unfamiliar runes.

“Fascinating.” Sammy remarked, “I bet if I used that in the Old Song, it’d remove the indiscriminating range and make it more accurate- Joey, where did you learn this rune?”

“From a dream.”

“… Really.” Sammy stared at Joey with the look of disbelief before shaking his head, “That is likely where you got the spell wrong. Instead of limiting the sound to this location specifically, the magic directed the ‘noises’ to certain witches who have the matching frequency.”

Sammy glowered at the circle. “A frequency I happen to be using.”

“Talk about luck,” Joey chuckled.

“I’m sorry, you think your spell backfiring on me is luck?”

“No, don’t get me wrong Sammy but neither of us had the intention of hexing you, however tempting as that may be.” Joey assured hastily, “But after showing you our experimental spell, are you sure you don’t want to join our coven?”

“How many times do I have to say no before it gets through your thick skull?”

“Lying doesn’t work on me, Sammy.” Joey was suddenly in Sammy’s face with bright red eyes, his grin wide and showcasing too many sharp teeth, “I can see the desire in your eyes. Deep within yourself, you want to leave the Old Songs.”

“That’s-” Sammy opened his mouth to argue but Joey cut him off.

“Not true? Please, you can lie to people, but you can’t hide the truth from me, Sammy Lawrence.” Joey smiled, hiding the teeth from the stunned Old Song witch, “Doesn’t it bother you? How restrictive all these old batty witches are being?”

“It… It does.” Sammy nodded in agreement.

Was it just him or was he starting to feel a little dizzy?

“Hmm, what was it that the High Witch often said in the Witches’ Gathering?” Joey hummed to himself, “We of the Ancestral Coven seek to educate the future generations of witches in magic and discover new ways of utilizing magic? Do you agree that they’re following their words though?”

“Not one bit.” Sammy murmured, shaking his head.

“Why don’t you tell me what those grandpas won’t let you do, Sammy?” Joey asked, slowly backing from Sammy.

“They won’t let me improve the Old Song.” Sammy hissed out bitterly, crossing his arms, “The Old Song, though is effective now, it’s weak. Far too weak than what it should be, and so many times, I found better chords and runes to apply with the Old Song.”

“But those stubborn fools don’t listen to me! They think that the Old Song is perfect the way it is, and all I’m doing is desecrating the Old Song.” The witch growled angrily, “When I presented my findings to them the first time, they tore up all of my hard work in front of me and told me off for straying from the true path of a witch.”

“Mm, what cruelty has befallen you, Sammy. I too, know the frustration and anger you feel when fools reject your brilliant ideas,” Joey remarked pitifully, “But here in the Circle of Imagination, there will be no one to deny you or your wonderful imagination. Nobody can tell you what you can or cannot do with magic. You can improve the Old Song far beyond than what the rest of those small-minded ants will ever reach.”

“All you need to do is to join our little Circle, Sammy Lawrence.” Joey finished, holding out a hand towards Sammy.

The Old Song witch stared at the offered hand for a while, slowly bringing his gaze up to Joey.

There was a new spark in his eyes, one that was very well hidden behind a mask of reluctant obedience, now all for the world to see.

“I’m in.” Sammy said with a tone of determined finality and shook Joey’s hand firmly.

Joey smiled, “Then I welcome you to the Circle of Imagination, Sammy Lawrence.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "You still haven't gotten rid of the hex by the way, Joey."


End file.
